SO scared.... Will I have to give him up???
First, a warning: this is LONG, so get comfy!
I am near tears over this right now.... I've already cried about it twice.
For those who have not read my profile: Two weeks ago we found a male corgi wandering around our neighborhood in the country. He had no tags of any kind, and appeared to have been dumped, because we noticed him just wandering around aimlessly without any supervision. We had seen him a few times before, and this was the case every time (wandering without supervision).
So two weeks ago, I coaxed him over to me in my front yard and fed him, talked to him, and after awhile I even convinced him to get close enough to let me pet him. After about half an hour, I had to go back inside, but he stayed in the front yard, laid down under a tree and watched my front door. He never moved from that spot until I went back out to him, then he immediately jumped up and seemed so happy to see me again! It was SO sweet and I was amazed at this behavior..... he seemed to be completely devoted to me already, and we just met! This went on a few more times throughout the day..... I would go back inside for a couple of hours and he waited for me under the tree, then get so excited when I came back out!
Needless to say, I fell IN LOVE! But of course I wondered where he came from. Every time my husband or I went out to him, we looked all around at the neighboring houses to see if anyone seemed to be looking for him. They weren't. I had fed him that morning, and he stayed at our place all day. Very late that night, when we still had not seen anyone looking for him and no one calling him, we coaxed him into our fenced backyard to keep him safe from the cars we knew would be speeding down our road the next morning. He's been "ours" ever since. Four days after bringing him into our yard, I took him to a groomer to be dipped, bathed, etc., and also got his shots. I named him Doc (Doc Holliday).
He's been with us for two weeks now and no one has come to our door asking about him, we've not heard anything about anyone missing a dog, and there have been no signs posted anywhere. Every weekday morning I have taken him out in the front yard on a leash while we wait with my daughter (and all the other neighborhood kids) for the school bus. No one has said a word about him being "So-and-so's dog" or anything else indicating that they recognize him. We live in a small neighborhood; maybe 20 houses total, and they are all pretty close together. If I lost a dog, I could walk door-to-door here and hit EVERY house asking about it in less than one hour EASILY.
Today my little girl was at a friend's house, and a little boy who was also there was asking if anyone had seen "his" corgi, and he described Doc. Aislyn (my daughter) came home and told me and pointed to where this little boy lives. He lives right across the street, 2 doors down! When these people step outside their home, they have a full, unobstructed view of my entire front yard. But he was in our front yard from 10:00 AM until after midnight that night and they never even looked outside to check on him?????? Because if they had looked for him AT ALL that day, they would have seen or "found" him instantly.
What am I going to do??? I am SO attached to him now and the thought of giving him up hurts SO much! I'm sure you all can imagine how heartbroken you would be if faced with the possibility of losing your baby! I want to do the right thing here, but I honestly don't know what that is! This little boy cares enough to ask about Doc now, but what are his parents feeling? If they miss Doc, WHY haven't they looked for him? I would have gone door-to-door looking for him AND put up signs all over the neighborhood, and every place possible within a 5-mile radius! I wouldn't let him run around freely, especially without tags displaying my phone number or something. They have a very large, fenced yard.... when he needed to go out, that's where he should have been; not running the neighborhood right next to a road that cars go 60 MPH on! Their apparent lack of concern makes me think that he was neglected.... like they just didn't care. And if that's the case, I certainly don't want him going back to that kind of home! When he first came here, he was so timid and anxious..... he seemed to be afraid of everything. We thought then that he might have been abused, but who knows? I don't like to jump to conclusions, but I couldn't help but wonder. Now he's relaxed quite a bit with us so far and seems to be more so every day. He lays on his bed at my feet while I'm sitting here at my desk, and if I get up to go to the kitchen for a drink, he follows me. If I get up to go to the bathroom, he follows and waits for me right outside the door. If I go outside, he goes too. When I go to bed, he sleeps on the floor next to my bed (on his own bed, of course!) He and I are just SO attached to each other, I can't stand the thought of losing him! But now I'm afraid to even take him out on the leash again because I don't want to risk them seeing him! One part of me feels like I'm doing the right thing, because he's happy here, and I strongly suspect that he was not happy before. The other part of me now feels like I'm stealing him, and that's a horrible feeling!
Well, I'm sorry to have made this SO long..... I guess I just needed to vent, and I am SO CONFUSED, scared to death, and just don't know WHAT the h*** I'm supposed to do!
Any advice or opinions here would be SO appreciated!
Thanks,
Starr
I am near tears over this right now.... I've already cried about it twice.
For those who have not read my profile: Two weeks ago we found a male corgi wandering around our neighborhood in the country. He had no tags of any kind, and appeared to have been dumped, because we noticed him just wandering around aimlessly without any supervision. We had seen him a few times before, and this was the case every time (wandering without supervision).
So two weeks ago, I coaxed him over to me in my front yard and fed him, talked to him, and after awhile I even convinced him to get close enough to let me pet him. After about half an hour, I had to go back inside, but he stayed in the front yard, laid down under a tree and watched my front door. He never moved from that spot until I went back out to him, then he immediately jumped up and seemed so happy to see me again! It was SO sweet and I was amazed at this behavior..... he seemed to be completely devoted to me already, and we just met! This went on a few more times throughout the day..... I would go back inside for a couple of hours and he waited for me under the tree, then get so excited when I came back out!
Needless to say, I fell IN LOVE! But of course I wondered where he came from. Every time my husband or I went out to him, we looked all around at the neighboring houses to see if anyone seemed to be looking for him. They weren't. I had fed him that morning, and he stayed at our place all day. Very late that night, when we still had not seen anyone looking for him and no one calling him, we coaxed him into our fenced backyard to keep him safe from the cars we knew would be speeding down our road the next morning. He's been "ours" ever since. Four days after bringing him into our yard, I took him to a groomer to be dipped, bathed, etc., and also got his shots. I named him Doc (Doc Holliday).
He's been with us for two weeks now and no one has come to our door asking about him, we've not heard anything about anyone missing a dog, and there have been no signs posted anywhere. Every weekday morning I have taken him out in the front yard on a leash while we wait with my daughter (and all the other neighborhood kids) for the school bus. No one has said a word about him being "So-and-so's dog" or anything else indicating that they recognize him. We live in a small neighborhood; maybe 20 houses total, and they are all pretty close together. If I lost a dog, I could walk door-to-door here and hit EVERY house asking about it in less than one hour EASILY.
Today my little girl was at a friend's house, and a little boy who was also there was asking if anyone had seen "his" corgi, and he described Doc. Aislyn (my daughter) came home and told me and pointed to where this little boy lives. He lives right across the street, 2 doors down! When these people step outside their home, they have a full, unobstructed view of my entire front yard. But he was in our front yard from 10:00 AM until after midnight that night and they never even looked outside to check on him?????? Because if they had looked for him AT ALL that day, they would have seen or "found" him instantly.
What am I going to do??? I am SO attached to him now and the thought of giving him up hurts SO much! I'm sure you all can imagine how heartbroken you would be if faced with the possibility of losing your baby! I want to do the right thing here, but I honestly don't know what that is! This little boy cares enough to ask about Doc now, but what are his parents feeling? If they miss Doc, WHY haven't they looked for him? I would have gone door-to-door looking for him AND put up signs all over the neighborhood, and every place possible within a 5-mile radius! I wouldn't let him run around freely, especially without tags displaying my phone number or something. They have a very large, fenced yard.... when he needed to go out, that's where he should have been; not running the neighborhood right next to a road that cars go 60 MPH on! Their apparent lack of concern makes me think that he was neglected.... like they just didn't care. And if that's the case, I certainly don't want him going back to that kind of home! When he first came here, he was so timid and anxious..... he seemed to be afraid of everything. We thought then that he might have been abused, but who knows? I don't like to jump to conclusions, but I couldn't help but wonder. Now he's relaxed quite a bit with us so far and seems to be more so every day. He lays on his bed at my feet while I'm sitting here at my desk, and if I get up to go to the kitchen for a drink, he follows me. If I get up to go to the bathroom, he follows and waits for me right outside the door. If I go outside, he goes too. When I go to bed, he sleeps on the floor next to my bed (on his own bed, of course!) He and I are just SO attached to each other, I can't stand the thought of losing him! But now I'm afraid to even take him out on the leash again because I don't want to risk them seeing him! One part of me feels like I'm doing the right thing, because he's happy here, and I strongly suspect that he was not happy before. The other part of me now feels like I'm stealing him, and that's a horrible feeling!
Well, I'm sorry to have made this SO long..... I guess I just needed to vent, and I am SO CONFUSED, scared to death, and just don't know WHAT the h*** I'm supposed to do!
Any advice or opinions here would be SO appreciated!
Thanks,
Starr
Comment
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Comment by Colleen on September 2, 2008 at 1:43pm
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Any update? Have you talked to your neighbors about the dog yet?
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Comment by Starr Hawk on August 31, 2008 at 8:06am
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Well, of course I agree with you, but then I'm just a LITTLE biased! I had Doc groomed and his shots given 4 days after we took him in, so I have those records, and I bought him a tag for his collar a couple of days ago with his name, my phone number, and "REWARD" engraved on it in case he gets out of the yard again but decides to go exploring instead of staying home. Oh, I also bought a Frontline flea treatment from the vet's office, and they keep records of the animal's breed, age, name, etc., so there's another "record" right there.
Anyway, thank you, Lou Ann, for your comment!
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Comment by Lou Ann Lemaster on August 30, 2008 at 11:05am
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Well, seems to me, if he was their dog, they have had plenty of time to see him and claim him. I think I wouldn't worry about it any more. I would go get dog license for him, to show at least what date you have had the dog in case they try and come after him. I think 3 weeks is long enough for them to recover their "beloved" pet!!! Then again, like some have said, maybe the little boy was making up the story because your daughter told him about the dog that was found.
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Oh, I just realized that I've never mentioned that the bus stop is right in between our house and their house, and their little boy is sometimes out there waiting for the bus also. I think his mom drives him to school half the time.
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Oh, by the way Jenni.... in response to your last comment/question. My daughter said that she did tell the boy that we found a corgi and are keeping him, and this was after he said that he lost one. So your idea does make perfect sense. And naturally, since this happened, I have paid much more attention to that house (don't know what I'm looking for.... it's just human nature, I guess). I even took Doc out front again on the leash this morning with Aislyn to wait for the school bus, and we stayed out there for about half an hour. I've never seen anyone from the other house even looking in our direction.
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Comment by Geri & Sidney on August 29, 2008 at 5:25pm
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He does seem to be very happy with you and seems to have claimed your house as his own. ;-)
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Something I thought was really cool happened last night while I was sitting here working. I put Doc outside in the (fenced) backyard for awhile, and after about 20 minutes, we saw him on our monitor in the front yard (we have 3 cameras set on 3 different areas around our home, and one of them shows the front yard, which is competely open; no fence). Apparently, Billy had accidentally left the back gate open a little. Doc wasn't going anywhere...... just kinda hanging out, sniffing around. So I started to go out there to get him and he just came right back into the house on his own! In fact, he RAN in so quickly he almost knocked me down!
Billy said that if Doc had belonged to the other people and had been happy over there, he would probably have gone to their house rather than staying in our yard. Obviously I don't know for sure whether he's right or not, but it does make sense.
Anyway, I just thought it was really cool and thought I would share this new bit of info with you all. Anyone have any opinions about this?
Thanks!
Starr
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Comment by Jenni & Dave Fields on August 28, 2008 at 5:10pm
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I have another thought....IF Doc belongs to the family in the neighborhood, and IF the little boy went home and told his parents that the dog is now with you, don't you think that if they wanted Doc back that they would have marched over to your door and asked if you had him? I would have been at my neighbors in a second!
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I am so sorry..... I just now noticed that my blog had a second page! I hadn't seen these last 6 comments until now! Nothing has changed so far.... we've been extremely busy this week and I have not gone over there yet. I know what everyone here feels I should do.... you've been nearly unanimous in your advice! But of course I am still terrified of the possibility...... WHAT IF he is their dog and they insist on having him back? Even if they said I could come over and visit him anytime, that's going to be SO painful for me! I'm really struggling with this, because, for one thing, my husband Billy is totally against the advice I've received here. He thinks I should not say or do anything except keep Doc out of the front yard where they could see him. He told me that he first saw Doc about 3 days before we took him in, and every time Billy saw him, Doc was just out wandering around by himself. He said that until Aislyn came home and told us about the boy, Billy was convinced that Doc was a dumpee. And he said, "You know that if you go over there and they want him back, one of two things will happen.... #1, he'll be hit by a car and killed in that road out there, or #2, this winter when there is 6 inches of snow on the ground, we'll drive by there and see him standing out in the freezing cold all alone, because I guarantee that if he belongs to anyone, they've made him an OUTdoor dog." So now I can't handle the "what if" factors...... what if he's right? Or what if they take him back and they really do abuse and/or neglect him like my gut tells me they (or whoever his previous owners are) did?
Anyway, I'm still trying to work this one out and will post more as soon as I can. Thank you all SO MUCH for all your advice, thoughts, prayers and concerns for us! I am really grateful for and touched by your caring!
Must go for now,
Starr
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Comment by Alla on August 28, 2008 at 8:57am
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Starr, please, give us an update!
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